The Barcode Odyssey: Tracing the Journey from Bull's-Eyes to Checkout Chic

Within the complex of time, in the narrow aisles of developments, a small story of the growth and great events that determined our world is hidden. It is, therefore, not a tale that starts with a beep but with a bull’s-eye. Picture this:

in the 1949, two masters, Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver, initiated the process of creating one of today’s most recognizable signs of our civilization – the barcode. But what they drew was no familiarity, it was the stunning circular bull’s eye, the emblem of future stories yet to write.

Jump forward to the 1960s, when the world was given the dazzle of lasers and Theodore H. Maiman brought life to Woodland and Silver’s conception. However, as soon as lasers showed the way to barcoding’s brilliance, the road was far from straight and narrow.

Of course, let me introduce you the rail-like Kartrak, a rainbow colored beauty of barcodes, which rose to fame but failed in the promise. At the same time, the grocery industry twirled with suns and fans in its first attempt at fantasizing about standardization in the midst of a swirl of innovation. Suddenly in the middle of this barcode ballet there was a committee to select the emblem that would bring industries together and change the face of business. The stage was set for a showdown between giants: RCA’s bulky sheer aimed at IBM’s slim slim rival. And that decision was not made when the stakes were high and the time was short for the committee. Would they go back to the familiar embrace of the bull’s eye or would they choose to go with the new direction that was symbolized by IBM? Unbelievably they opted for the latter and set a new course that changed the course of retailing process forever. It was a typical day in June 1974 and a small grocery store in Troy, Ohio, but the world was about to change when for the first time the familiar sound of the scanner was heard. Litte did they know that the barcode that they would select would one day leap off the mundane, and go on to become an emblem of the post modern era, and a surface to paint on. 

It seems the prosaic decision regarding what should be encoded, how it should be printed or even the barcodes’ aesthetic parameters have paved way to the development of numerous innovations – from dystopian materials to the philosophies behind architectural masterpieces. The next time you glance over the familiar pattern at grocery check out point, ponder on the transformation that this simple product has made from bull’s eye target to laser beams, and thereby be impressed with the bar code’s imprinting of the world we live in.